A blog of our 1999 trip from the burning season in Bolivia and the summits of the Andes altiplano down the Urubamba, Ucayali and Amazon to Manaus and on to Rio to document human impact in the greatest biodiversity hot spot on planet Earth for the millennium.

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This photo-blog is designed to work either as a standard blog with images or - by clicking any image - a photo-album. To see an image in full resolution click to the left or right of an image in blog mode. The images were generated from video to give the best possible view of the journey.

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Ascension Fires

Satellite map of the burning season in eastern Bolivia at the time

After Yotau, we came to a region where the road was clouded with smoke.

Pretty soon we came upon a large tract of land which was being burned off.

Panorama of the land on fire

Second panorama of the land on fire

One of the many new ranch style houses being built on the blocks being burned off

A little further along, we came to another blaze completely unattended in a stand of native palm trees.

Cattle and herons at a water hole by the road

Just at sunset we came to a large rain forest hardwood logging depot with trchloads of native logs waiting to be carted away, each with their own specifications.

but unlike other areas on our route there is still extensive cover with forest.

We arrived in Ascension at sunset. The town had recently been engulfed with wild fires and a whole section of the town had been burned out. People were sheltering in military tents sent by the civil emergency authorities and making an early start on rebuilding their shanty houses.

Kids standing before the central cross in the town square at Ascension

Panorama of the Ascension town gardens

Central Ascension

Ascension's dusty streets

A giant spider

The hostal we stayed at was a veritable menagerie with monkeys, one tied on a rope, a tiny marmoset with a screeching ultra-sonic call, parrots, and pigs running in the courtyard.